I’m so excited to write this blog post because even as I was listing out the activities we did each day, I was having a great time reliving some of the fun things we did! In mid-February, the fiancé and I went to Singapore. We didn’t have too much time as the bulk of our Asia trip was to revisit Hong Kong (since I was long overdue for a family visit), but we did what we could in Singapore with the time we had!

On Day 1, we flew in from a layover from Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport. We didn’t land in Singapore until about 1PM, but we went straight to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Gin Bugis. I will say that the rooms were TINY, with a lack of space for putting stuff down. But we only needed a bed to sleep on, so it was fine. It was also super conveniently located so I highly praise it for that.

Our first stop was to a hawker center! I’ve always wanted to go to a hawker center. I remember watching a documentary a long time back on a hawker stall that won a Michelin star despite operating out of what was essentially an open-air food court. Albert Center was near our hotel, so we walked there. We ate some vermicelli noodles from Bai Nian Niang Dou Foo, and a plate of marinated assorted meats with flat noodles from Kway Chap Cooked Food. We were a bit peckish from our flight, and I love tofu and fishballs so we got the vermicelli noodles first. I was then lured by Kway Chap. The assorted meats looked so good since everyone was ordering them. I could see there were intestines in there, but we went for it anyway. I don’t love innards, but the sauce it came in covered everything so it was ok. The rest of the marinated meats were really good!

We then shopped around Bugis Street Market, Bugis+, and the area there. The Bugis Street Market was my jam. I missed the tight and crammed Asian malls with deals and bargains in every corner. I didn’t end up buying anything since we had very little luggage space, but was tempted.

After shopping, we headed to Kampong Glam to check out Zam Zam. This was a recommendation from a friend who’s from Singapore, and OH MY GOSH I love murtabak. I instantly messaged my friend to see if we had this in Vancouver, and she said she unfortunately hasn’t found a good place yet. After dinner, we looked around the “Arab Street” area and walked down Haji Lane. Haji Lane was filled with lots of cute shops, including thrift stores, photo booths, and restaurants.

Our night wasn’t over yet because we then took a bus to Clarke Quay. The fiancé took us on a Singapore River Cruise at night. For $28 a person, we rode “bumboats” down Singapore River and watched a recording that explained the history of Singapore to us while we passed by various sights. The night breeze was lovely, and it was a fun experience! A nice crash course on Singapore’s past. We walked around Clarke Quay a bit afterwards but soon headed back to our hotel to try to fight our jetlag and adjust to Asia’s timezone.

Day 2 started with another hawker center! We went to People’s Park for some Kopi-C and milk tea — and I got allured by a stall that sold a whole plate of rice with toppings for under $3. It wasn’t bad at all!

We then went to the Maxwell Food Center. As we took the Mass Rapid Transit (their subway) to Chinatown, we had to walk to Maxwell. During the walk we passed by two temples we had wanted to take a look at: the Sri Mariamman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. We didn’t go in (I was also not appropriately dressed—I was dressed for the incredibly hot weather, but would require a more modest attire for entering temples), but both were very cool to look at from the outside.

At Maxwell, we ate at Tian Tian! I love Hainanese chicken, so I was very excited about this. We got there at about 9:30AM. We were told via Google that they open at 10AM and we wanted to be early. To our surprise, they were already serving food when we got there! We beat the lineups and quickly got our food—accompanied by a fresh coconut from another stall nearby. The chicken was so good. It was tender and flavorful. Exactly what I had hoped for!

It was getting super hot, and I needed aircon. The fiancé had already accounted for this, so he brought us to The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands! While it’s a shopping mall, the tax bracket is way above what I’m in. So we mostly window-shopped. We sat down at Toast Box, which is a pretty prominent Singaporean fast food chain, and had some runny eggs with kaya butter toast. SO GOOD! I eventually got a bit bored at the mall, so we took a taxi to try to get some chili crab.

Prior to going to Singapore, I had wanted to try chili crab. I learned while we were there that chili crab has peanuts :’ ) Which I’m allergic to. We made a pivot and ordered some salted duck yolk crab instead. Which wasn’t bad, but I am disappointed that I couldn’t have chili crab.

After the snack/meal, we went to take a picture with the Merlion at Merlion Park. It was super hot out, yet you wouldn’t know it from how many people were hanging around the statue. It’s pretty iconic though so I’m glad we got to see it!

We then headed to our reservation at the Gardens by the Bay. The fiancé booked us tickets for the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome there. We went to the Cloud Forest first and IT WAS AMAZING. I think we should’ve swapped the order of the two because I don’t think anything can beat the Cloud Forest. Amazing views and a very cool experience. Both these exhibits were air conned by the way, so it was also a great way to escape from the heat. If you wanted to just go to the Supertree Grove as well as the surrounding park, that’s all free! Amazingly, so much of it is actually free. We stayed late so we could watch the later showing of the lights show at the Supertree Grove, which was pretty cool.

After the gardens, we headed to Lavo, a rooftop restaurant that’s a part of Marina Bay Sands. The main reason why we booked reservations there was for the view. The food was okay, but being able to see the Singapore skyline from above was 10/10. What a way to end the night!

On our last day in Singapore, we went to our neighborhood Ya Kun Kaya Toast. There were quite a few of these chain cafe everywhere, and I just wanted some kaya butter toast with eggs again. The bread here was not as fluffy as Toast Box’s—it was just a completely different kind of bread. But it was still decent.

We then headed back to Chinatown to check out the Chinatown Complex Food Center. This is another hawker center and this time, we came specifically to try out Hawker Chan. They used to have a Michelin star and was the cheapest place to get a Michelin-starred meal. They’re no longer starred as they have had many new branches open up and couldn’t keep up with the quality I guess. This hawker center one was the original store though. I thought the flavour was pretty good, but the chicken itself was a bit tough.

Leaving the hawker center, we walked along the Chinatown street markets. That’s when I decided I might as well get some durian. I don’t like durian, but it felt like I would be missing out if I didn’t eat some in Singapore. We got a box of Musang King fresh durian—it was kind of pricey. Like just under $40 for what you see in the picture? I managed to eat 3 pieces of the durian despite usually not being able to stomach even a piece. The fiancé had to finish the rest.

After eating, we headed to Orchard Road for their malls. We started at ION Orchard, then went through the Takashimaya Shopping Center, and then we took an underground tunnel over to Lucky Plaza. So many varieties of malls that are all interconnected internally! We didn’t buy much, but it was nice to see the options available in the various malls.

After window shopping, it was time for us to bus back to the hotel and pick up our luggage. We Uber-ed to the airport. Our flight was taking off from Terminal 4, but we checked in our big luggage and then took a free shuttle to the Jewel Changi Airport to see the world’s largest indoor waterfall! I wish we had more time because the waterfall was also located in a pretty diverse shopping mall, but we had to head back to our terminal.

Singapore was very fun, but also very hot. I loved the fact that Canadian and Singapore currencies are almost 1:1 in terms of conversion rate—so it made it easy for me to gauge if something was expensive or cheap. The food is phenomenal and I’m so glad we finally got to sample local Singaporean dishes!